The Mass Media and Voter Decision Making: An Assessment of Ghana’s 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections

Abstract

Few citizens personally attend political campaign rallies. Many depend on the mass media and other sources for news about political campaigns. In an election without the media, the voters would likely end up not having full information about whatever took place during the election. It is against this background that the current study sought to investigate the role the media play in voter choices and how this role is perceived. Using questionnaire as a data collection instrument, views of some 300 respondents from Accra, the capital city of Ghana was surveyed. Findings indicate that a significant percent of voters in Ghana’s 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections based their choices on what they have heard through media reports. A significant percent also were indifferent as to whether the media performed well or not. This brings to the fore the agenda-setting power of the media. The study therefore recommends that the media be more circumspect in their reportage because whatever is reported is regarded the “truth” by the many of the audiences, especially those without the capacity to personally interrogate the issues.

Keywords: Ghana, Accra, mass media, voter decision, political campaigns